The sad reality we face: learning to protect ourselves while at houses of worship

At a recent event in Hampton Roads, Michael Goldsmith, regional security advisor for the United Jewish Federation of Tidewater, emphasized key points to remember if facing an armed, active threat while in a place of worship:

Know where the exits are – before a crisis happens. If you need to hide, is there a room or other area that’s not easy to enter? Mute your cellphone so the ringtone doesn’t reveal your location. If you must ultimately fight an attacker, use chairs, microphone stands and other objects that could be wielded as weapons.

And don’t fight fair! You’re battling to stay alive.

“We try to train our community … in how to keep the wolf on the other side of the door as much as we can,” Goldsmith, a former Norfolk police chief, told 100 members of various local faith congregations this month at First Presbyterian Church of Norfolk. It was one of several presentations he’s led with the Secure Community Network, a nonprofit that focuses on the safety and security of Jews in North America.

As I sat listening, I realized again it’s come to this: Everyone needs to consider the possibility of an attack occurring while attending a church, synagogue or mosque. Though such incidents aren’t numerous, they’re not exactly rare, either.

The events garnering the most attention are well-known because of the body count. A compilation by nonprofit news organization The Conversation uncovered 379 incidents totaling 487 killings at religious congregations and community centers in America from 2000 to 2024.

The database listed 11 incidents in Virginia over that time period; one person was slain in each case.

The Norfolk church hosting the safety training is only two miles from Old Dominion University, where – on March 12 – a gunman burst into a ROTC classroom and opened fire, killing the university’s head of the ROTC program and wounding two others before students killed him. The attacker had previously been in prison for trying to provide support to ISIL, also known as the Islamic State.

Also on March 12, a man armed with an AR-style rifle and commercial grade fireworks rammed his car into a Detroit area synagogue filled with dozens of children. He got stuck in the car, exchanged fire with a security guard, and then fatally shot himself. The Lebanese-born man had recently learned that four relatives were killed in his native country during an Israeli airstrike.

At the Norfolk presentation, Goldsmith detailed several factors about attacks at places of worship and other sites: The average duration from start to finish is 12 minutes. Many perpetrators are motivated by revenge, notoriety, or ideology; they could be having a mental health crisis.

Attackers could show indications beforehand of what they’re planning, including objectifying people as not human, acquiring weapons, and possibly leaking plans of the violence.

The former police chief showed video footage of gun-wielding persons laying siege to schools, as well as a simulation of the “run, hide, fight” protocol that the FBI recommends. A similar training video is online.

Recognizing that something horrible is actually happening is key, Goldsmith said: “You’ve got to think about the bad thing, folks.”

Participants told me they appreciated the tutorial – despite its ghastly subject matter.

“It’s the world today,” said Doug Trzcinski, 63, of Chesapeake. But he added he hadn’t faced any situations like those described during the presentation.

Sadly, examples over the years are too easy to list. Among the worst:

• A man motivated by racial hatred killed nine people attending Bible study at a Black church in Charleston, S.C., in June 2015. He fired more than 70 rounds from a semiautomatic handgun at congregants of Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church.
• A gunman armed with a military-style rifle and tactical gear opened fire on parishioners at a church near San Antonio, killing 26, before dying himself, in November 2017. At least 20 people were wounded. Authorities later said a “domestic situation” might have been the gunman’s motivation, but “he was there to kill everybody,” a source told ABC News.
• A man burst into a Pittsburgh synagogue in October 2018 and killed 11 worshippers and injured seven people. The carnage at the Tree of Life synagogue, by someone who spewed white supremacist doctrines online and hatred of Jews, was the deadliest antisemitic incident in U.S. history.

That’s why sessions like the one in Norfolk are important. They can provide participants the tools to survive the unthinkable – even when they just want to worship.